What Could Have Been: The Gubernatorial Veto’s Prominent Role in Stalling Virginia’s 2024 Legislative Election Law Changes
October 29, 2024
By: Sophie Tully
Election law in Virginia almost changed drastically coming into the November 2024 election.
Virginia’s General Assembly passed several bills in the 2024 session aimed at circumventing roadblocks to voting and at remedying vote dilution concerns. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed these bills.
The veto, while obviously a fixture of any legislative process, proves especially consequential in scenarios where those with veto power can single-handedly influence their camp’s ability to continue to be elected. These election laws could change who is purged from the voting lists, who is turned away at the polls for not having an adequate ID, and who gets to bring suit when these laws are violated. Each of these laws conveys the broader tensions between election security (keeping out unlawful votes) and voting accessibility (ensuring people that should be able to vote can) that carry hefty ramifications about who gets to vote on election day and who gets elected. The veto in these scenarios shows that Governor Youngkin holds a strong hand in what principles of election law Virginia prioritizes.
However, Virginia governors are barred from serving consecutive terms. Virginia’s gubernatorial veto regarding election law may have less to do with a Governor’s stake in their future success. Nevertheless, the General Assembly passed a bill creating a private right of action for voting rights violations in Virginia, which the Governor vetoed, as well as bills expanding acceptable voter ID and articulating list maintenance practices, both also vetoed.
Governor Youngkin vetoed a bill that would allow voters to use identification certified by certain state agencies as their voter ID. Virginia requires voter ID but allows voters to sign an ID confirmation statement if a voter appears at their polling place without their ID. The tension between shaping the law to make it easier for people to exercise their voting rights and concerns surrounding election integrity is in practice in Virginia, where different visions of voter ID laws and election laws generally clash and inevitably deadlock any change.
While this phenomenon is not unique to election law, election integrity fears, which Governor Youngkin represented by vetoing the voter registration bill, suggest that the electorate may be scared that changing election laws come with ulterior motives, but keeping existing laws, which to some seem less workable, is also a concern. In the periphery of this, of course, is the interest in the law reflecting a voter’s interest and empowering them to vote and know how to vote. Amongst election turbulence, the General Assembly sought to get changes on the books before the 2024 November election but were forestalled by Governor Youngkin’s veto. Accordingly, the stagnation of this legal change freezes Virginia in time in some ways while the 2024 election rapidly approaches.
Many of these bills also sought to tighten the reins on list maintenance, a task thrust more heavily upon the Virginia Department of Elections after Virginia left the bipartisan and centralized Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) in 2023, of which the state was a founding member. The General Assembly also passed a bill this session, SB 606, to require Virginia to rejoin ERIC. Governor Youngkin vetoed the bill.
A democratic majority General Assembly passed bills requiring the Virginia Department of Elections to annually review list maintenance data, to provide notice before canceling a voter’s registration, to ensure the accuracy of the data and sources from which they take voting data. These changes undoubtedly affect voting lists, which, in turn, could have tipped the scales as these legislators sought reelection. Regardless, these thwarted attempts to add guardrails to list maintenance illustrate the broader precarity of general distrust in the electoral system and failed attempts to assuage those fears amongst intense political polarization.
Codifying procedure and requirements for running elections, a privilege generally reserved for states, is a process that Virginia illustrates is much easier said than done. The General Assembly passed at least six voter registration data or list maintenance bills in the 2024 session that Governor Youngkin vetoed. As a result, the state of list maintenance in Virginia seems stagnant until either party holds down both the Capitol and the Governor’s Mansion, or else, until temperatures cool regarding trust in elections.
While there is interest in what Virginia’s list maintenance law should be, Virginia has its own list maintenance procedure in place, pursuant to the National Voting Registration Act (NVRA). Virginia’s Department of Elections Handbook has procedure for list maintenance that includes sending address confirmations to voters and waiting two federal election cycles for a response before canceling a registration through the NVRA cancellation program.
Voter ID laws and list maintenance are central to effectively running elections, as registration lists and voter ID laws necessarily affect whether or not a person can vote. While the General Assembly’s blocked attempts to instill broader voter ID allowances and list maintenance procedure show that opinions differ on how to ensure free and fair elections, these attempts foreshadow continuing legislative interest in reshaping Virginia’s election law.
Governor Youngkin’s veto in response to the General Assembly’s repeated interest in list maintenance law makes the legislative efforts seem Sisyphean. Even if, in 2024’s tumultuous election landscape, the governing procedure for elections are irreconcilably contentious, this power struggle illustrates a tension and shared stake in the trajectory of Virginia’s election law.